Thankfully, Timothy arrived at that very moment to take our orders and I was let off the hook for a few minutes as he scribbled down our choices. As soon as he was done, I jumped in quickly to change the subject.
‘Carly, did you do all the drumming on Skylar’s album or just her tour?’
Carly happily launched into her answer and as everyone listened politely, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was getting a headache from all their questions.
‘Flick, are you coming to Sky’s London party?’
Skylar gasped at Ethan’s question. ‘That is such a good idea, Ethan! Yes, Flick, you’ve got to come. It’s in a few weeks in, like, thecoolestclub in the city. Will you come?’
‘Wow! I’d love to. Are you sure?’
‘Yes, I’m sure.’ Skylar laughed. ‘You are my hostess after all, it would be rude not to invite you.’
‘I can’t believe you live here,’ Carly said, shaking her head.
Oh no. Not this again.
‘I know, right?’ Skylar nodded. ‘Imagine growing up in this place.’
‘It’s really not that big a deal,’ I said quickly, taking a sip of water as my face grew hot again.
‘Don’t play it down.’ Ethan smiled encouragingly. ‘Tell us about it. Do you live in one of the suites?’
‘Do you have your own butler?’ Carly asked, leaning forward, fascinated.
‘Do you order vats of ice cream from room service, like inHome Alone 2?’ Jacob chuckled.
‘Have you always held your birthday parties here? They must have been amazing.’ Sky smiled. ‘You must have met some amazing people too.’
‘Hey, you should go on Ethan’s vlog,’ Jacob suggested.
‘What a brilliant idea!’ Skylar clapped her hands together as the other two nodded. ‘What do you think, Ethan?’
‘I think it sounds cool. Flick?’ he said, as everyone waited for my answer. ‘What do you say? Want to be a guest star on my vlog?’
That was when I saw Audrey, stopping at the door to proudly survey the scene and make sure everything was in order. If she saw me, she would come thundering over to the table and probably tell me to go to my room. I had already embarrassed myself enough this evening in front of the coolest people on the planet. If Audrey spotted me, my life would literally be over. There was only one thing to do. Without any explanation, I threw myself dramatically on to the ground and crawled under the table.
‘Well . . .’ I heard Ethan laugh, as the table fell into stunned silence. ‘I think that might be a no.’
‘That makes TOTAL sense. Everyone just thought you were really weird.’
I lifted the slices of cucumber from my eyes so I could look at Skylar.
‘Did Ethan say that?’
‘That you were weird? Yeah.’
I slumped into the reclining chair and closed my eyes, putting the cucumber slices back on my eyelids. It had been a few days since the disastrous dinner, and this was the first chance I’d had to explain myself.
I’d had to wait for ages for Audrey to leave, by which point the food had arrived and no one had been sure what to do. Skylar had peered under the tablecloth to find out what was going on but unfortunately, so had everyone else, and I couldn’t tell them all (I mean, I was mainly thinking of Ethan ‘the Jaw’ Duke) the reason I was under there.
And I know I looked pretty stupid anyway, hiding underneath the table, but it was better than all of Skylar Chase’s glamorous friends thinking I was a big baby, being caught by Audrey and sent to my room.
When I saw Audrey’s shoes leaving the restaurant, I decided that it was too risky to hang around there. She was bound to come back. It had been a stupid idea to agree to go to dinner with Skylar. If Audrey had seen me and told Mum, then the punishment would have been stretched out even longer. I was on strike two. As soon as I saw those polished Christian Louboutins clacking in the opposite direction, I crawled out from under the table, told everyone I had to go because of ‘a thing’ and then ran full-pelt towards the door that led to the piano room, before bursting through it and interrupting a cast of singers in the middle of a private performance.
‘So, what did you do?’
‘I picked up a fan from the props table and pretended to be part of the performance.’
